


The Future Of Earth And Mankind

by Topographical_Map_Of_Utah



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), WALL-E (2008)
Genre: Cyborgs, First Kiss, M/M, Minor Violence, Rated T just because language, Wall-E crossover, never thought i'd use that tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-10 10:20:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10435536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Topographical_Map_Of_Utah/pseuds/Topographical_Map_Of_Utah
Summary: The Earth is uninhabitable, FN-2187 doesn't like sand, Rey's a lonely scavenger and Poe just wants someone to sing musical numbers with. So basically it's TFA only this time everyone gets a droid.





	1. Fly Me To The Moon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TuppingLiberty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TuppingLiberty/gifts).



FN-2187 stepped out of his pod, blinking in the sudden sunlight that shone unfamiliar and warm on his cybernetic skin. Earth. Seven hundred years ago he would have been standing in the Atlantic Ocean, but now there was nothing but sand stretching in every direction. While he punched in the activation code for his droid the gritty grains gathered in his metal joints and scrambled his visual sensors. So far all he had learnt about this mudball planet was that sand was a fucking pain.

When he input the last digit the compartment on the side of his pod hissed open with a burst of steam. He stepped back as his droid emerged, a sleek white ovoid floating a foot or so above the ground, still in standby mode. He pressed his palm to her chest and she woke with a little whir, blue eyes flickering to life and head and arms emerging from her chassis.

"Hey, Eve. Sleep well?" he asked, running a hand over her domed head. She chirped out a giggle and nuzzled back. She was the newest model of the evaluation probes, fully equipped with a plasma blaster and reserved for troopers classed sergeant and above.

The day FN-2187 and his unit had been taken out of their cryotanks they had each been handed armour, given their rank, and assigned a probe. FN-2187 was fond of his, and he was pretty sure she liked him back. They were two of a kind, after all.

Simulations and scans that dated all the way back to infancy had shown an aptitude for leadership and strategy hiding somewhere in FN-2187's head. That being the case, upon completion of basic training he was placed in an elite squad, never mind the fact that none of his squadmates particularly liked him, owing to the fact that he possessed something akin to a conscience. Eve, on her part, had a bit more human in her than FN-2187 had believed to be possible in droids. Those scientist had really outdone themselves with the AI on her model. So overall, it seemed that the two of them were both a bit too smart for their own good.

 _Directive?_ she asked suddenly. FN-2187 shrugged and stood, squinting at the horizon. On one side there was a city, and on the other there was more sand. Hopefully his orders would steer clear of the latter.

"Dunno yet. Transmission might take a minute or so. Go play, Eve." Her LED eyes squinted in delight and she shot up into the rolling expanse of beige sky with a squeal, rings of blue energy trailing behind her. FN-2187 watched her path with a smile on his face. It wasn't just seeing her happy that was cause for celebration, though. If he squinted he could almost make out hints of blue behind all that space junk and dust, evidence of what might have been if he had been born an eon ago, back when a blue sky was a given rather than a fairytale.

Suddenly a transmission flashed across his close-fitting facial screen, interrupting his guilty revery. He shook his head and turned his attention towards his orders. Thoughts like that had no place in the mind of a trooper. His superiors would gut him if they found any trace of that abnormality during a brain scan. Thankfully those had never revealed anything incriminating before, even though FN-2187 had been what would be considered abnormal for a long, long time. 

_DIRECTIVE: SCAN ASSIGNED SECTOR FOR PRESENCE OF PHOTOSYNTHETIC EUKARYOTES._

Photosynthetic eukaryotes, or plants, if you didn't have a stick up your ass like half of FN-2187's platoon did, had long been extinct. Yet every day, orders from the Axiom would be relayed to the Finalizer, and every day another droid and trooper would be jettisoned back to Earth.

FN-2187 had never been aboard the flagship of their fleet, but he knew that proper humans lived there. Big, flabby things who spent their days ambling about in hover chairs, sucking on liquified meals of sugar and salt. He didn't quite know why they wanted to recolonize this sorry heap of sand, but it wasn't his place to ask question. He just had to read orders and get the job done.

_IF LOCATED, OBTAIN SPECIMEN AND REPORT BACK TO COMMANDING OFFICER IMMEDIATELY._

FN-2187 dismissed the message and sent out a pulse signal, alerting Eve that they were leaving. A sonic boom rippled somewhere far behind him and he smiled as he trotted up a dune. She would catch up with him soon enough.

 

\---------

 

"Hey, BB-8, you know where that slot head is?" The droid nudged the appropriate screwdriver towards Poe and he dragged it up with the heel of his boot. "Thank you..."

BB-8 chirped and rolled through the maze of spare parts and clothes on the cracked concrete floor, knocking their domed head against the enforced door in the corner of the hangar. Poe heard the banging and rolled out from under the water filter he was working on, wiping oil off of his face and shaking his head.

"Not today, buddy. Storm's coming and I don't feel like digging you outta the dunes again. We'll go tomorrow, I promise. Now c'mon over here and help me with this, would you? I need a light."

Perhaps a bit too eager to assist, BB-8 trundled over and immediately stuck their lighter in Poe's face. He sputtered and nearly toppled backwards off of his creeper, making BB-8 shriek. "Geez, pal, not what I meant..."

Eventually they did manage to get back to work. Clanging and beeping bounced off of the high rafters and rattled the corrugated walls. Once Poe was satisfied he rolled out, threw the switch, and sat himself down expectantly as the contraption roared to life. 

"Not too shabby, huh?" Poe smiled as water began to drip into the tank. The water filter was his pride and joy, a convoluted thing that had taken the better part of a year to design and build. A particularly potent antacid medication neutralized the rather acrid water he pumped up from underground, boiling it as it moved through the pipes. The mess was filtered, boiled again, and finally the steam was allowed to condensate and drip into a collection tank. The taste still needed to be worked on, but overall the results had been better than Poe had expected. Only now he had bigger problems.

He sat back on his heels and puffed out his cheeks, the dreaded gap between projects looming large ahead of him. Unfortunately, his life alternated between frantic fights for survival and stretches of time where he thought he would go mad from boredom. Of course, there were things to do. Take stock of his food reserves, keep up general maintenance on the hangar. Maybe he would take up drawing. After all, he had unearthed a pack of crayons a week or so back. He wasn't quite sure how they had survived for this long, but he wasn't about to ask questions.

So he set about digging out some old blueprints to draw on and clearing his workbench of various defunct generator bits, only too late remembering that he couldn't draw anything other than schematics. That put a snag in his plans. 

"Or I could write a story, I guess." Resigned, Poe leant back in his chair, considering his options and settling on the simplest one.

"Once upon a time," he began, a pencil between his teeth. "Once upon a time, there was a castle made of glass. It sparkled like diamonds in the sunrise, and glowed like fire in the sunset." 

His mom had told stories like this sometimes, of the world that existed before their own. Humans had ruled supreme, dominated with their jets and reactors and buildings that brushed the clouds. Now they lived in small colonies, spread out across the planet like freckles on a face. At least, Poe figured they did. It wouldn't make sense if he and BB-8 were the only two things left, right?

"A prince lived there, as princes generally do. He had lots of friends, and a proper family to boot. They all lived together on an island that was covered in trees and surrounded by clear, fresh water." Poe watched his purifier chugging along and sighed. "Every day he would fight dragons and monsters, and every night there would be a ball. There would be singing and dancing and..."

And the prince wouldn't be all by himself. That was the main thing. Poe, on the other hand, he was as lonely as anything. For the past couple decades he had lived in a rusty hangar, slept in a sleeping bag beneath the wing of a defunct starship, and spoken to no one but a droid and himself. He wasn't what you would call a social butterfly. The closest thing he had to another human voice was the crackling radio that had been his mother's. He turned that on and started to sing along with the cassette inside, raising his voice as the whirlwind picked up outside.

 _Fly me to the moon_  
_Let me play among the stars_  
_Let me see what spring is like on_  
_Jupiter and Mars..._  

He would happily go to Jupiter, Mars; anywhere really. So long as he had someone's hand to hold, so long as the galaxy didn't spread out as wide and lonely as the desert right outside his door. Poe rolled on top of his sleeping bag and sighed into his ratty pillow that had been repurposed from an old coat.

 _In other words, hold my hand_  
_In other words, baby kiss me_

The words were absent and familiar on Poe's tongue, but that didn't mean they didn't hurt the barest bit. He could count on one hand the number of times he had held hands with someone, and the number of kisses was even lower.

Well, that was a bit of a mood killer. He threw a baseball at the circuit breaker on the wall, grinning a bit when the generator whirred to life somewhere below him. It would put a bit of strain on the system, but the dark really didn't appeal to him at the moment.

One by one the strings of fairy lights scattered across the hangar flickered to life: the purple one above the doorway, the yellow one strung over the cockpit of the ship that had lights shaped like hearts, the multicoloured one on the rafters that had nearly cost him his neck. BB-8 rolled into bed beside him and Poe covered them up in a worn leather jacket, a tired smile on his face.

"There's someone out there, buddy." he insisted, watching the rainbow light bouncing off of the walls. The sand raged outside and he drew BB-8 close to his chest, listening to their whirring and clicking and imagining it to be something a bit more human. "There has to be."

 

\---------

 

Today was the day. After a couple short circuits, a busted motherboard, and one small explosion, Rey wasn't going to be lonely any longer. She wouldn't allow it.

She crouched in the middle of her cramped, grimy workshop, eyes intent on the dented metal cube she had set in a pool of sunlight five minutes prior. The cracked power bar on his chest didn't seem to be getting any higher, leaving Rey biting her nails in frustration, too distracted even to be deterred by the oil clinging to her fingertips.

"You're taking your time, aren't you?" she grumbled when the charger stalled, two bars from full. She wasn't quite sure why it wasn't working. Hadn't she scoured the city from end to end for the best possible parts? She had spent a good month on the hydraulic presses alone. To refuse to work now would just be rude on the droid's part.

 "Alright, then." On impulse she grabbed a couple jumper cables and her last good battery off one of her shelves. If this didn't work, she doubted anything would. "Kinda unorthodox, but what can you do." 

Rey hooked everything up quickly enough, but she hesitated before starting the battery. Either it would work perfectly, or she would be scraping bits of droid off of her walls for the next six months. Finally she pulled her goggles down and hunkered behind a metal sheet. Truth be told, she had a very bad feeling about this.

When she snapped everything into place there was spark, a whirr, and a noise like a computer booting up. Rey poked out from her hiding spot and crept forwards, vaguely disappointed that her droid was still inert. For a long moment, nothing happened. Then finally the droid retracted its solar panels and Rey sat back, smiling as her new friend came to life. His sensors twitched and his fingers clicked. He cocked his funny looking head and squinted at her, just as curious as she was, it seemed. 

"Hello there." She offered her hand and he gave it a prim shake, an indistinct greeting burbling in his speakers. "What's your name?"

He looked like he was trying to answer, but nothing came out of him but squeals and indecipherable blips. Sympathetic, Rey crouched and held his head steady while she inspected him, shushing him like you would an infant. Not that Rey had ever held one of those. She had only ever seen them in those limp and faded clothing catalogues lying forlorn on the side of the road.

"Oh, sorry, the shock must have fried your speakers..." Worse could have happened, though. She could have blown the roof clean off right above their heads. "Sorry about that."

When the droid realised his throat was busted he sighed, tapping his fingers together in what appeared to be a nervous tic. Rey hadn't known that bots could develop tics. Then again, this little guy's circuits were so fried that some glitch was probably responsible for it. In the end he pointed at the faded designation in the lower left corner of his chassis, eyes pleading.

"Wall-E, then? Alright. Hello, Wall-E." At being called by name Wall-E nodded and let out an inarticulate squeal. He grabbed Rey by the hand, shaking it even harder and trying his best to say the word himself. "Good to meet you too."

They were rather similar, Rey realised as he continued to wring out her hand. Scrappy, lonely, goggle-wearing little things who eked out a life in refuse and sand. Two of a kind, really. She had known there was a reason she had scooped up his crumpled yellow chassis all those months ago.

When he finally tired himself out she pat him on the head and got to her feet, pulling on her own goggles as she made her way to the door. "C'mon, Wall-E. Let's get you those new speakers." Rey shouldered her pack, surprised to find that she still had a smile on her face. Doubtful that she had smiled this much since childhood. "It'll be nice having someone to talk to again." 


	2. S'Wonderful

"Meet me back home in a couple hours, alright?" Poe zipped up his jumpsuit and gave BB-8 a pointed glance as he strapped his pack and radio to the hoverbike steaming at the edge of a crumbled overpass. As promised the night before, Poe had taken BB-8 on a field trip into what remained of the city. It must have been impressive when it was built, but the deafening silence that pervaded the place made it more forlorn than anything. More fun than being cooped up in the hangar, though. "And play nice." 

Not that BB-8 had anyone to play with, but it was more of a warning not to cause a ruckus than anything else. Once they had toppled a giant trash spires that shared the skyline with the buildings. Purely on accident, of course. They had just been trying to get to something shiny out of what turned out to be a rather structurally crucial cube. Poe had felt that tremor on the other side of town.

Once Poe shot off in a cloud of sand BB-8 trundled in the other direction, towards their favourite stomping ground by what might once have been the seaside. In their humble opinion there was nothing better than a nice, quiet stroll on the beach. They were something of a romantic, truth be told.

As BB-8 made their way towards the shore they looked around themself, taking in the scoured shades of grey and beige and yellow, the sand blocking the doorways and gutters. That was all they had seen for a long time, but deep in their memory banks there was a glimmer of something else. The streets were cleaner, busier. The buildings glimmered white and the sky was pale blue. Humans laughed and spoke and ran, and wherever you looked there was life. Bursting, reckless life.

But that had been a long, long time ago.

BB-8 chirped sadly as they turned the corner, rolling over the layer of bills and advertisements that coated the ground like carpet. These days the streets were completely empty, save for BB-8 and Poe, of course.

Actually, that may not be entirely true.

BB-8 paused, cocking their head at the unfamiliar sight. There was a box sitting in the middle of the road, quivering in what might be fear. That was rather unusual. Ever so slowly, BB-8 rolled closer, inspecting their find. The box bore a resemblance to the obsolete waste allocator droids that had been meant to dig the humans out of all of their trash. Their sorry carcasses were spread across town in varying states of rust and decay. BB-8 had a secret horror of ending up like them. They knew that Poe would never let that happen, but it was frightening all the same.

Usually they steered clear of these units, but in a strange change of pace, this one still appeared to be functioning at a reasonable level. Delighted, BB-8 nudged against it and chirped out a greeting, but the box just scuttled away on a pair of grimy treads. Feeling rather jilted, BB-8 chased it down the street with an excited squeal, dodging the towering piles of trash in their way and kicking up a trail of brown dust. This was playing nice, right?

 

_\---------_

 

A mile or so away from where BB-8 was innocently terrorizing their new friend, music older than the past few centuries was bouncing off of the buildings, echoing dully in the emptiness of the sleeping city. 

 _You've made my life so glamorous_  
_You can't blame me for feeling amorous..._

Poe sang along with his radio as loud as he pleased, safe knowing that no one could hear him but the cockroaches that occasionally climbed out of the gutters to stare. He didn't mind their company, really. It made scavenging the car yard for any remaining spare parts a bit less lonely. You would think that after seven hundred years everything would be gone, but one of the benefits of a society that had been based on mass consumerism was that even now there was plenty of stuff left over for him to pick through.

 _Oh, s'wonderful, s'marvelous_  
_That you should care for me_

_S'wonderful, it's-_

The sound of a blaster charging behind him made Poe pause mid verse. In the rearview mirror he noticed the reflection of a white shape, vaguely reminiscent of an angry A-bomb. He puffed out his cheeks and sighed. Now this could be something of a problem.

There was a gunshot and Poe leapt out of the way as the car he was working on exploded in a blue mushroom cloud, barely managing to duck behind a stack of tires when the defunct delivery truck beside him went up in flames. He dodged the next blast and was tensing to scramble from the next one when a voice gave him pause.

"Stand down, Eve." someone ordered, the sound distorted and authoritative. Poe raised his head and blinked through the smoke at the unfamiliar droid who was pointing a plasma cannon at him, before turning his attention to the man behind her. Droid and master bore an uncanny similarity to each other. Sleek white armour, a black shield on their faces. Poe swallowed around the tightness in his throat, coming to grips with who exactly he was dealing with. So they did still exist.

Troopers had been the bogeyman in Poe's childhood stories, the reason he didn't get out of bed in the middle of the night for a glass of water. The military branch of the corporation that used to govern the planet had created them in case of a sudden insurgence. There were still posters clinging to the walls of some buildings with the faded image of troopers standing at attention, beneath a banner proclaiming that they were  _THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE;_ _PROGRAMMED TO PROTECT_ _._

If protection meant striking terror and complacency into the hearts of civilians, then they had nailed that slogan. Troopers were more machine than man, and cruel machines at that. In the past they rounded up rebels, assassinated political agitators. They were cruel and merciless and stone cold killers. 

And the one standing in front of Poe had just saved his life.  

"Sorry about Eve. She can be a little excitable." A laugh rumbled behind the mask, warm and deep even with the distortion. "Do you have a designation?" 

"D'you mean my name? It's Poe. You?" 

"FN-2187." As he spoke his helmet drew away from his face and Poe was left staring at a young man's bright brown eyes, so much kinder than he had ever anticipated. Now this was a rather noteworthy occasion, he realised. A person. Another human being was standing right before his eyes. Poe hoped he wouldn't make a fool of himself.

"What kinda name is that?" he blurted out abruptly. Only too late did he realise that might not have been the best introduction. Clearly a couple decades spent mostly on his own had left him rather lacking in social graces. But FN-2187 just laughed again. Without the mask the sound was even lovelier.

"What kinda name is Poe?" 

"A reasonable one. It doesn't have numbers in it."

"You have a point." Perhaps Poe was imagining things, but there might have been a longing edge in his voice. FN-2187 took a careful step towards Poe. He seemed to grow more hesitant the closer he came. "I didn't know there were still people here."

"Few and far between, but we're still around." Suddenly a red warning signal flashed in the corner of Poe's vision, the microchip implanted somewhere in his head warning of a sandstorm coming their way. Sure enough, there it was gathering on the horizon, rolling in like a yellow tide on that mythical thing called the sea. Only Poe knew that these waves carried with them a bit more danger.

"Sorry to cut this short, but storm's coming. You guys need a place to crash?" he asked, gathering his things out of the rubble Eve had created and hopping nimbly onto his bike. The two individuals in question looked between each other, a silent conversation passing between them. Then FN-2187 shrugged and clambered on behind Poe, arms tight around his waist and chin resting on his shoulder. Poe knew that pacemakers couldn't skip a beat, but the one in his chest was sure whirring a bit quicker than usual. He put that out of his mind and hit the gas, whistling along to a song he had stuck in his head and watching Eve weave and dance around the buildings they passed by.

 _S'awful nice, s'paradise,_  
_S'what I love to see._  

_Oh, s'wonderful, s'marvelous_  
_That you should care for me...._

 

\---------- 

 

Finally, BB-8 had the box cornered, and now there was nothing preventing them from becoming best friends with it. If it had only cooperated in the first place they wouldn't have had to go through all this, but BB-8 was willing to let it slide, this time. They had kept up the game of cat and mouse for a good ten minutes, then the box banged headfirst into a lamppost and groaned in a croaky, synthesized voice; an admonition of defeat it BB-8 had ever heard one. At first BB-8 stayed a ways back, beeping encouragingly as a pair of goggles peeked out from the chassis. The box trundled slowly towards BB-8, unpacking itself as it did. Hydraulic arms emerged, then goggles, then finally a spindly neck on which balanced his goggle eyes. He was just a square version of BB-8, really, only BB-8 was in somewhat better repair. Figuring it was polite, they asked the droid his name, since continuing to refer to him as _Box_ seemed kind of rude.

 _Wa..._  The droid narrowed up his eyes in concentration and edged a bit forwards.  _Wall-E._

BB-8 squealed in delight and Wall-E perked up a bit, nervously tapping his fingers together. BB-8 bipped out their name in binary and Wall-E nodded listlessly. He seemed to be looking for some appendage he could shake. In the end he settled for patting BB-8 on the head and offering them the cockroach that had hitched a ride in his vents. BB-8 wasn't a fan of bugs, but it wouldn't do to tell that to a friend they had had for all of two minutes.

As they were pretending to admire Hal the cockroach's shiny carapace, something thudded to the ground a few feet behind them. At first BB-8 disregarded it, then they heard the footsteps and nearly leapt out of their inoxium skin.

"Wall-E? Who..." At the unfamiliar voice Wall-E squeaked and rolled over to who BB-8 presumed was his human. She had clothing bleached from years in the sun, short brown hair plastered to her scowling forehead. While BB-8 was looking at her she was giving them the same treatment, taking in their polished plating and perfectly intact visual sensor, her eyebrows slowly drawing closer together. 

"Where do you come from?" she asked.

BB-8 tried to answer, but at first they could only squeal. A human. Another human. BB-8 almost short-circuited, they were so excited. Instead they let out a mostly unintelligible string of binary, but somehow the girl was able to pick out a few key plot points. Considering Poe sometimes had trouble keeping up, that was quite the accomplishment.

"Slow down, BB-8." A flicker of a grin flashed across her face, furtive as a mouse darting across a kitchen floor. BB-8 had a feeling she didn't have much reason to smile, considering her situation. "Wait, you have a friend? A person?" BB-8 nodded, and this time her smile spread from ear to ear, earnest and bright and reminiscent of something BB-8 couldn't quite remember. Pleased with the reaction they nodded, specifying further that they had a _nice_ human. It was one thing to have a human who treated BB-8 like a piece of equipment, and completely another to have one who spent six months working the compulsion BB-8 had to call Poe 'master' out of their code. "Really? Can you take us to them? Please? Preferably before the sand gets to us."

BB-8 chirped in delight and trundled down the street with the girl and Wall-E at their heels, picking up the pace as the storm drew closer. Two new friends would be of no use if they were swept off in the sand. 

 

\-----------

 

"So normal names don't have numbers?"

"Not generally."

"Huh." FN-2187 rested his cheek on Poe's shoulder and sighed. "I'd like a normal name."

"Well, it's FN, right?" FN-2187 nodded and Poe puffed out his cheeks. His dad had always teased him about that little habit, saying it made him look like a blowfish, but it helped him think. At least, that's what he was choosing to believe. "How about...Finn?"

"Finn?" His face brightened and after giving Poe a squeeze Finn smiled up at his droid, who was amusing herself by doing donuts around their heads as Poe eased the bike into the garage behind the hangar. "Hey, Eve, I've got a name now! It's Finn, got it?" She cocked her head, unimpressed. "Look, the 'i' and the extra 'n' make a big difference, alright? Imagine if we added letters to your name, I bet that'd change something..."

Their petty little argument kept up as they walked to the front of the hangar, but once there it died down in the face of something rather surprising. BB-8 was sitting proudly at the door, two figures in tow. One appeared to be a maintenance droid, and the other was, if all those lonely years hadn't skewed Poe's perceptions too badly, a girl; barely over nineteen, he thought. Although looks could be deceiving in this day and age. Poe figured he appeared about thirty, but if you added on that time he had spent in cryo, and the fact that a third of him was a bunch of circuits, odds are he was pushing at least six hundred.

"Hi? BB-8 said..." The girl got to her feet, shuffling in her thick black work boots and chewing on her thumbnail. "BB-8's your droid, right? They said...they said I could stay here during the storm." She cocked her head, a quizzical expression twisting her freckled face. "I thought there was only one of you."

"There was, until about an hour ago. I like your droid, by the way.." Finn said simply, looking curiously at the grimy little cube at Rey's side. Poe was still too overwhelmed by the situation to say much, staring at the assembled group in shock. "What's their name?"

"He can tell you. Go on, Wall-E." she prompted. But her droid seemed to have been preoccupied with staring at Eve, somehow conveying what appeared to be awe with those funny goggle sensors that made up his head. "I guess we'll work on that later. I'm Rey, by the way."

"I'm Finn." There was a touch of pride in his voice. After all, a name was nothing to scoff at. "That's Eve, and-"

"And I'm Poe." Poe jumped in when the wind picked up, just enough to remind him that they were on the clock. "Right, so we got Finn, Rey, Eve, BB-8, Wall-E, Poe, and sand. Lots of sand. Coming right this way. I say we get inside." 

"Seconded." Rey smiled on her way into the hangar, watching BB-8 rolling around with bright, amused eyes. Finn watched Wall-E watching Eve, and Poe counted them all again as they passed by, just to be sure. But no, he hadn't been hallucinating. Four new friends in one day. That had to be some kind of record.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> turns out this story is gonna be longer than i expected. oops.


	3. Que Sera, Sera

_Que sera, sera_  
_Whatever will be, will be_  
_The future's not ours to see,_  
_Que sera, sera..._  

"How is she sleeping with this noise?" Finn whispered, glancing from the crackling radio to the glowing television to Rey's sleeping form in his lap. He kept his voice low, as the droids had all powered down for the night in the corner in a cosy little cluster. Poe didn't have the heart to tell him loud noises couldn't wake them.  

An hour or so ago Rey had fallen asleep between the two of them, her head cushioned in Finn's lap and arms wrapped around his middle. According to her without his outer armour he made a good pillow. They had stayed up late into the night, swapping stories and working the rust out of their laughter. And what each had to say fascinated the other two to no end.

Poe had unearthed BB-8 in what had once been a government lab and put them back in working order. This was Finn's first mission to Earth. Three years ago Rey had cut herself off from a marauding band of bloodthirsty scavengers. All the things they had never thought would get shared with anyone else, because no one was willing to listen. 

"Ambiance, I think it's called. You want something to eat, by the way?" Poe offered, glancing over at his pantry, stocked full of nutrition capsules and the occasional Twinkie. Then he looked Finn up and down and his eyebrows drew together, something a little bit unsettling occurring to him. "Can you eat?"

Finn shook his head, absently scratching the top of Rey's head and counting her split ends, freckles, bruises. Little imperfections he couldn't quite comprehend. Components clicked and whirred softly in his arm, technology eons away from anything Poe had ever seen. It put his own upgrades to shame. Finn caught his eye and smiled a bit, noting the curious glimmer in Poe's eyes.

"If you're wondering, I've got a compartment here," Finn pointed at his left arm, the smooth white material he had in lieu of skin. "A helmet thing I dunno the name for." As he spoke his visor began to creep across his face again. It appeared and dissolved with technology that was a bit beyond Poe's comprehension, but in essence it was a bit like a close-fitting speeder helmet that Finn could control. At least, Poe thought as it drew away from Finn's cheekbones, that was how he could understand it. "And a blaster here." Sure enough Finn's hand glowed blue-white from the pulsing repulsor set in his palm. One of Poe's comics had a guy on the cover with something like it. Only Iron Man had been able to take off his armour. He doubted that Finn could do the same. "Whole body's been reconstructed, basically. The Order's real thorough with their soldiers."

"Reconstructed? So you..." Poe wondered how he should phrase this without sounding rude, like he thought Finn was a science experiment. "You were completely human, at one point?"

"Yeah." Another sad smile tugged at his lips. "You can't make a person out of a machine, but it's easy to make a machine out of a person. I had parents. I know I did. I just can't remember..." Shaking his head, Finn gently rearranged Rey on the bedding so her head was resting on a pillow rather than his thigh. Once she was covered up with a couple threadbare blankets and a jacket he stretched, returning reluctantly to his story. "If a family decides their kid's...defective, they give them up. They send them over to the military ship to be reprogrammed and that's that. At least that's what they told us." 

None of the troopers could remember why their parents hadn't wanted them. None of them could even remember having parents at all. But Finn did, somehow. Another little abnormality the scanners hadn't managed to pick up.

 Some nights he woke up before his charge cycle was done, gasping in the claustrophobic dark of his cryotank. There were hands trying to hold him back, pleas shouted as he was dragged away. And there was a voice calling him by a name he couldn't quite catch. A name that had belonged to him. A name that he had long since forgotten.

Finn didn't like to dwell on it, though. 

"If we're going into depressing backstories, why were you left on Earth?" he asked Poe, trying to take his mind off of all the things he couldn't remember. "Can't imagine that's a feel-good story."

"Pretty common one, though. If you couldn't afford a ticket onto the starliners, then you had to earn your keep down here, I guess." Poe tugged at the collar of his t-shirt and shrugged. "My parents were mechanics. Government fixed us all up with a couple enhancements, made us a little sturdier than your average meat sack." 

As a result Poe was a bit less than human, flesh and bone and spare parts. Nothing as extensive as Finn, but he had a metal arm and no need for a stomach or lungs. Strictly speaking he didn't even have to drink water, but without it his mouth got dry and his head throbbed every now and again. Besides, it was nice keeping the human parts of himself alive.

"But if they had that kind of tech, why send people away at all?"

"'Cause would you wanna live in that?" Poe nodded at the skyline peeking at them through the one tiny window, the trash piled higher than the buildings themselves. "No one wanted to face the mess they'd made, so they just left the undesirables to clean it all up."

"Sounds like something they would do." Finn agreed. Disregard for human life was a staple of the corporation, after all. He knew that better than anyone. "Definitely something they would do..."

But instead of dwelling on the childhood he never got to have Finn turned back to the movie flickering on Poe's makeshift screen, watching the big loud musical number wind down until it was just the two leads left onscreen with the lights dimmed, standing unusually close to each other and doing something strange with their mouths. "Poe? What're they doing?" 

"I'm pretty sure it's called kissing." Poe said tentatively. In the back of his mind he seemed to recall his mom pecking his dad on the cheek before they stepped out the door for the last time, two hours away from the sandstorm that would wrench him out of their reach for good. 

"Huh." Finn screwed up his face, eyes still riveted on the inexplicable display. "Looks gross."

"I think it's nice..." Finn made a horrible retching noise and Poe rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Finn. It's not that-" The retching interrupted him again and Poe pursed his lips. He was trying very hard not to laugh at Finn's antics. "You're so immat-" More retching. After a couple more attempts Poe gave up and set himself down in Finn's lap, cupping the smooth contours of his face in his hands. "Here, lemme prove it to you."

"I'm not looking forward to this." Finn informed Poe, even as he tilted his head up to meet him. At the first brushing touch Poe's breath hitched in his throat. Finn's lips were warm and surprisingly soft, likely owing to the fact that synthetic skin probably didn't chap. Pulling away for even a moment took effort; effort made worthwhile by the fact that Finn seemed to have visibly melted in Poe's arms. This had gone better than either of them had expected.

"Huh." Finn breathed. The blinking charger lights on the side of his neck were going haywire and his pupils were dilating and contracting at random, almost as though they couldn't decide where to focus. "Not as gross as I thought."

"What'd I tell you?" Poe leant in for another kiss and Finn closed his eyes in anticipation, smiling when their lips slid against each other, fitting like tiles in a mosaic.

Now Finn had done some zero-grav training before (one of the few highlights from life on the Finalizer), but the floaty feeling this brought on was even better. Less like drifting and more like flying. Like he had a say in where this would go. After a couple minutes they were both panting, noses knocking and arms wrapped around each other. It didn't seem as strange to him now, though. It was as natural as putting one foot in front of the other when he walked. Or natural as coming to attention when a senior passed by, but that wasn't quite as poetic.

"What're the odds of this, huh?" Poe sighed when they finally managed to disengage.

"I could calculate those for you." Finn offered, lazily tracing the gap between Poe's two front teeth while the latter watched mechanisms whirring in Finn's neck, humming along to the radio that had decided to revive itself. "They're rather low."

 _When I grew up and fell in love_  
_I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead_  
_Will we have rainbows, day after day?_  
_Here's what my sweetheart said..._

 "Yeah?" Poe pecked Finn on the cheek and smiled. "Good thing I've got a history of beating the odds."  


	4. Till We Meet Again

"What the fuck-" Warning alarms blared in Poe's head and flashed red across his vision, jerking him out of sleep. Cursing, he cupped his hands over his ears and rolled out of bed, smacking into Rey and letting her yank him behind the starship as the air buzzed with electricity. The radio was shrieking with static and the television screen cracked before exploding in a shower of flames and glass. BB-8 rolled over to them, yelling something about plants and directives and Eve while veins of electric blue sparks jumped across every metal surface in the hangar. Poe ducked as his water purifier burst into flames at the end of the hangar. Not the most soothing wakeup he had ever had.

"Rey, what the hell?" 

"Finn and Eve, something's wrong with them-" Poe peeked out from behind their hiding spot and stiffened at the sight. Eve was shuddering and emitting a high pitched shrieking noise, Wall-E frozen at her side. Still on the bed, Finn had gone rigid and his faceplate was creeping back over his cheekbones. A plant symbol glowed green in the centre of their chests. Poe reached for Finn but a purple energy field threw him back onto the floor with a burst of sparks. Woozy, he lifted his head, wondering just what to do about this mess.

Then as soon as it began, it was over. Finn crumpled in a heap on the bed and Eve snapped into standby mode, landing on the ground with a thud. For a moment everyone froze, then Wall-E squealed in horror and Rey rushed to Finn's side, shaking his shoulders and trying to get him to wake up.

"Finn? C'mon Finn, please..."

Poe staggered to his feet and slumped against the wall, watching the scene with wide eyes. He had a feeling things were about to get very complicated.

 

\--------------

 

"Slow down, BB-8. You said that you and Wall-E showed Eve that plant? And when you did that everything went haywire, right?" BB-8 squealed in agreement and Poe shushed them, casting a glance at the bed. They had laid Finn out under the blankets in the hope that he would wake up on his own, but that had been hours ago, now. Poe was starting to worry about him. Not to mention that Eve was in the same state. Wall-E had pushed her outside in the hopes of recharging her with solar power, but that wasn't doing anything, either.

"Is that why he was sent here, d'you think? Gathering plant samples or something?" Rey theorized. She plumped the pillow under Finn's head and smoothed a hand over his covered face. If that mask wasn't there Poe would have been able to pretend that he was just sleeping, but as things stood, it was very hard believing that. "By the way, can I borrow your speeder? I'm gonna check if I've got anything back home that could help these guys..." 

"Go ahead, Rey." She shot Poe a salute and gave Finn's forehead a kiss, running out the door with BB-8 in tow before Poe could catch the tremble in her lips. He sighed and dropped onto the edge of the mattress, pressing his hands to his face. This had been a long day, and it was barely mid afternoon. 

"I'm gonna kill you when you wake up." he yawned, turning to adjust the blankets around Finn's still form. "Not really, but I hope y'know I'm annoyed, and lonely, and I want to kiss you again. You've missed a bunch, by the way. I think Wall-E's got a crush on Eve. Seems like a cute match, right?" Poe smiled, reaching out and smoothing a hand over Finn's chest. He hadn't expected a response, but his heart still broke a little when all he got was the dull hum of Finn's pacemaker. One day. He couldn't even hold down a boyfriend for one entire day without it all going to bits.

Defeated, Poe kicked off his jumpsuit and crawled into bed, arranging Finn's stiff arms and legs so that they were almost cuddling. Usually Finn would have hugged him back, though.

 "Y'know, I think there was a fairytale like this." Poe realised, tracing the components glowing under Finn's skin and watching the fairy lights flicker above his head. "So once upon a time there was a princess. She was smart and kind and lovely,  but an evil fairy had cursed her when she was a baby, so on her sixteenth birthday she fell into a deep, deep sleep. The castle was hidden by a forest of prickly vines, and the only thing that could wake her was true love's kiss..."

 

\---------------

 

Poe's next wakeup was no better than the day before. He squawked and toppled out of bed in a mess of blankets when an engine shrieked and sparked above his head, making the whole hangar quake. He looked up to see that his ship was lurching and shaking for no apparent reason, which was just wonderful.

"What the fuck-"

"Poe, you awake? Get up here, I need help with this-Fuck!" Rey's voice rang out from inside the ship and Poe staggered to his feet, cupping his hands over his ears so he wouldn't have to listen to the clanging and banging coming from inside. He had only ever used that ship for storage, so this was something of a surprise.

He ran into the ship to find Rey tinkering in the cockpit, one hand stuck in a mess of wires sticking out of the wall and other hand strained for a lever across the board. Poe flipped it for her and she sighed in relief when the engine stopped shaking. Poe shook his head, nearly tripping over BB-8 when they rolled over with their arc-welder already enabled. He jumped back and tumbled into the co-pilot's chair with a startled squawk. He couldn't catch a break, could he?

"What the hell, Rey? Where's Finn? Or the other droids?"

"I came back this morning and they were gone. I think Finn's ship came back, retrieved him and Eve or something..." She hit the console and it sputtered to life, lights flickering and comms buzzing. The engines shuddered beneath them and BB-8 shrieked as they lurched up into the air for a moment before slamming down again. "Fuck-"

"What? They're gone?" Poe's heart dropped and he staggered to his feet. "No, you're kidding. Tell me you're kidding."

"Fucking wish I was. Wall-E followed them too, so that was just great..." 

"How're we gonna find them?"

"I put a tracker on Wall-E. Didn't wanna lose him." Suddenly the engine purred and Rey laughed, giving the console a fond pat. "There we go. Good Falcon..."

"Falcon?"

"That's what it says on the side of the ship. Okay, here's the plan. We get on the Axiom, you get your boyfriend, I get my droid, and we all live happily ever after. How's that? I've already packed, so we should go while this clunker's still working."

"Sounds good, but..." Poe hesitated before tapping her shoulder and pointing towards the door. "Just lemme get my radio."

"That's not an essential." Rey called as he ran down the ramp with BB-8 at his heels. She was right, but Poe chose to disregard that.

 

\---------------

 

 _There's a song in the land of the lily_  
_Each sweetheart has heard with a sigh_  
_Over high garden walls this sweet echo falls_  
_As a soldier boy whispers goodbye..._

  
"Poe, shut that off. BB-8, we need you to get that door open for us, alright?" Rey insisted into her mic. BB-8 beeped over the comm and Poe watched through the glass as they pulled their probe out of the bay door's power socket, rolling back and forth in delight when it slid open. "Good job."

Poe had spotted an unused hangar in the bottom of the Axiom, and seeing as BB-8 didn't have to breath, the two of them had deposited the droid on the strip of catwalk in front of the door, a program that would shut down the ship's security features embedded in their code. Rey had spent the entire flight working on that bit of programming while Poe played with the controls of their new ship. Turns out those years spent dicking around with that flight simulator he had discovered in the hangar two doors down were worth it. 

Poe eased the ship into the darkened hangar as softly as he could, jumping when the door hissed shut behind them. The fact that they were technically breaking and entering escaped him. After all, they had a good reason for it.

"So how do we find them, exactly?" Poe asked as they gathered their things. It wasn't much. Just a couple blasters, Rey's staff, a couple homemade explosives and the handheld radio Poe had discovered in the glove compartment. Rey rolled her eyes and held up her arm for his inspection. She had a little tracking screen on the codex she wore around her wrist, charting Wall-E's position. He seemed to be up in the residential areas, from what Poe could make of the strange graphs and lines. "That doesn't really help us find Finn, though."

"Yeah it does. Think about it. Wall-E's probably stuck to Eve like glue, and Eve probably knows where Finn would be. It works out, trust me." The Falcon's ramp hissed open and they both peered warily into the gloom, not quite sure how they wanted to proceed. This was beyond anything Poe had ever anticipated happening to him, after all. Going out of state lines would have been too far a trip for him, and now here he was galaxy hopping like nobody's business. Not at all how he had expected his week to go.

"This is foreboding." Rey whispered as they crept across the white, sterile hangar, motion sensor lights blinking on as they passed. They left muddy brown prints on the floor wherever they stepped, Poe noticed. Even BB-8 had a trail of dust behind them. Poe made a note to wipe his boots the first chance he got. "Poor Finn, having to grow up in something like this..."

"Where the hell is he, d'you think?" Poe asked. Rey took another look around and shook her head.

"I'd rather not find out, honestly."

 

\---------

 

FN-2187 woke up in his cryotank, blinking as the lid hissed open and he was hit with a sudden burst of cool air. His accumulated nicks and bruises had all been healed, as usual, and all memories of his time out of cryo had faded. When troopers woke up, their minds were wiped of their previous mission, but he still had vague flashes of what had happened, snippets that for whatever reason hadn't been erased. There was a girl with a bright laugh, rainbow fairy lights above his head, and a pair of warm, squishable arms that Finn wanted to sink into at the end of the day.

"Finn." he said softly, testing the name on his tongue. His name, his name was...

 _FN-2187._ Phasma's voice suddenly rang out in his head, metallic and severe. She was the automated security system that monitored every ship in the fleet, a program whose guard never dropped, whose grip on the minds of the troopers was absolute. At least, that's what he was led to believe.

"Ma'am?" FN-2187 came to attention, staring blankly ahead in anticipation of orders, as he had done time and time again since the first time he had stepped out of his pod. A bleak reality, but he didn't know anything else.

_There are intruders in Sector A. Their presence threatens the safety of the entire fleet. You are to neutralize them by whatever means necessary._

Kill them, was what she meant to say. Troopers didn't take prisoners. 

"Yes ma'am. But what about the plant?" he blurted out. FN-2187 had no clue where that came from. He snapped his mouth shut, regret burning in his cheeks.

_There was no plant, FN-2187. Your droid returned negative._

Phasma's voice was smooth and certain, but somewhere deep in his chest FN-2187 knew that she might be lying. Hux, a mysterious scientist who programmed the troopers, might have simply wiped her database, but he swallowed down his misgivings and nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

_Confirmed. Report to Pod 5 immediately._

FN-2187's head buzzed with the low tone that meant Phasma had disconnected. He set about putting on his armour, but when his fingers ghosted over the smooth glass of his mask he paused. He remembered someone else's hand, someone else's voice close to his ear. That hadn't been a dream, had it?

Then the pod hissed open at the end of the barracks and he locked his helmet in place. It was not his place to remember, he reminded himself. After all, he had been programmed to do nothing but forget. 


	5. When I Fall In Love

"I don't like this, this is bullshit, we're gonna die and that's just swell..."

"Why are you singing?" Rey hissed. 

"Because I'm fucking freaked out." Poe hummed back. BB-8 nodded in agreement, freezing up and nuzzling against Poe's leg when they turned into a far busier tunnel, full of droids whizzing through the air on any number of errands. BB-8 wasn't an especially social droid, despite what Wall-E believed. Crowds made them nervous.

The trio had been sneaking through the ship for hours, dodging the vehicles and droids that moved at a pace none of them were used to. They had expected that the sudden appearance of two grimy humanoids not fused to a hoverchair to cause a bit of a panic, but strangely enough, that hadn't really been a problem. The passengers they had come across didn't have much to say about the ragtag little group. Probably on account of the screens hovering around their heads, bright and flickering, constant stimulation that seemed to consume all of their concentration.

Poe would stop and think about the implications of that, but he was kind of preoccupied, here. Missing boyfriends took priority over analyzing mass consumerism.

"You still locked in on Wall-E's signal, right?" 

"Yeah. We're getting closer." Rey assured him, squinting at her codex. Suddenly it started flashing and beeping, the little white blip that meant Wall-E suddenly shooting across the screen. "Huh. Way, _way_ closer."

Suddenly alarms blared overhead and warning lights started flashing red. An automated voice joined the alarms, surprisingly calm, considering the circumstances.  _Caution, rogue robots. Caution, rogue robots. Caution, rogue..._  

Rey and Poe scrambled out of the way as a herd of celebrating bots hurtled past, a grimy little droid being thrown around on top of the cheering crowd. Wall-E gave them a little wave before being swept off again. Poe felt like there was definitely a story behind that, but they didn't really have time to hear it. 

"What the hell..." Poe took a step forwards, then Rey yanked him back as Eve rocketed by. She turned the corner, then turned back just as quickly, nearly slamming into Poe for a second time.

 _Plant!_ she exclaimed, taking Rey's arm. Rey held out her wrist and Eve touched a finger to the codex port, sending data that Rey read through as quickly as possible, eyes growing wide as she scanned the words and numbers. 

"What is it?"

"Remember that plant? They're trying to get it back to the captain. Apparently that can get this ship home. We have to help them."

"Back to Earth?" Actually, Poe liked the sound of that. He didn't understand how a tiny little plant could do that, but it was still a nice thought, even if it did kind of interfere with their first plan. "Hate to say it, but that takes priority. You three go. I'll find Finn." Rey nodded and Poe gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Don't do anything stupid, kid."

"Same goes for you, old man." Rey saluted before running off after Eve, BB-8 in tow. They would be fine. At least Poe sure as hell hoped they would be. He quite liked having friends.

 

\---------

 

Just how big this ship was hadn't struck Poe until he was stuck wandering through it without Rey's tracker. The place was massive, glittering and glowing like something alive. After a lifetime spent partly in a desert and partly in the decaying carcass of a long abandoned city, it was all something of a shock. Everything was automated, everything was clean, and from what Poe could gather, everything was taken for granted. No one spoke to anyone, though they were constantly talking, and the droids never got so much as a thank you. It made him a little bit homesick. 

 _And the moment I can feel that you feel that way too_  
_Is when I fall in love with..._

Poe had been singing to pass the time, comfortable knowing that no one was paying any attention to him, then he turned a corner and stopped mid-verse. A trooper was standing at the end of the hall, face shield up and stance rigid. Poe hesitated, cheek pressed to the cool metal wall and one hand on his blaster. On one hand, he should probably shoot. On the other...

Then the trooper turned around and made the decision for him.

"State your name." he said coldly, advancing towards Poe. The voice was familiar, if slightly off. Poe breathed a sigh of relief before it crossed his mind that even if he recognised Finn, that wouldn't do much good if Finn didn't recognise _him_. 

"State your name." Finn repeated, palm outstretched and repulsor glowing pale blue. Poe figured that complying might be a good idea.

"Alright, alright. It's Poe, remember? I'm Poe."

Finn didn't respond at first, blaster still trained on Poe's chest. After a moment of Poe not being sure what would happen, Finn grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him into an alcove. Poe stayed quiet, letting himself be pulled deeper into the darkened corner, until the only light came from the pale blue veins under Finn's skin. And then he just stared, grip unyielding on Poe's shoulders.

"Finn?" Poe ventured, knowing that he sounded uneasy. "What's wrong?" 

"I'm supposed to kill you." Finn's voice came out all wrong through the mask, metallic and cold and garbled. So different from the soft, easy warmth Poe had grown accustomed to back in the hangar. "I don't know why I'm not..."

"'Cause you're not one of them, Finn. You're not one of them." As he spoke Poe couldn't help but trace the ridges of Finn's helmet, the sleek white material that resisted any human gentleness, as insurmountable as a tower or curse, straight out of one of Poe's fairytales. Then that melted away, revealing Finn's pained face, shiny and overheated, dark eyes burning holes in Poe's skin before he squeezed them shut with a growl. "Finn?"

Another choked growl was the only answer Finn could give, sounding haggard under the constant hum of the ship. His mouth was twisted in a grimace and his hands were spasming like he had lost control of them. Then for a moment, his eyes flashed stark white. He stumbled, teetered, then his knees buckled and Poe caught him before he hit the ground, wrinkling up his face when he smelled the wires and plastic burning in Finn's neck.

"I'm okay." Finn assured him, voice weak and cracking. "I'm okay..." 

"Shit." Poe breathed. Finn nodded weakly and Poe ran a hand through his hair. Components were still clicking and whirring under his scalp, like he was recalibrating himself down to the smallest widget. "What just..." Poe's eyes widened when it finally clicked. "Oh."

His conditioning. Finn had broken his conditioning. Reset himself from zero. Made his mind his own. Everything he had ever been taught, everything he had been programmed to do, to believe, he had overridden it all.

"You are incredible." Poe breathed. Finn snorted into his chest and Poe pulled him upright. "Absolutely incredible."

"Shut up." Finn opened one eye and grinned. "You really must love me, coming all this way."

"You're worth the commute." Poe draped his jacket over Finn's trembling shoulders and pressed a kiss to his slick forehead. "Hate to do this, sweetheart, but d'you think you can track down Eve? She knows how to get the whole fleet home and-"

_FN-2187, it has been brought to my attention that you have actively defied an order._

A harsh female voice broke into their conversation, hollow in the small, dark space. Finn took a deep breath and closed his eyes, grip tightening on Poe's wrist.

"Hey, Phasma. How's it going?" he said weakly. Poe didn't quite know what was going on, but he had a feeling that for Finn, this was pretty important. 

_Return to your pod._

"I don't think I wanna do that."

_If you do not return to your pod, we will enable total shutdown on all your faculties._

"Just try it, Siri." he challenged. For a moment there was blissful silence, nothing but the whir of mechanisms in Finn's chest. They waited, but Phasma's threat seemed to have been an empty one. Instead secondary alarms started blaring, even harsher than the first ones. Well, Finn must have ticked someone off. Poe was very proud of him.

_Rogue trooper in Sector One. Rogue trooper in Sector One. All civilians return to quarters. Deploying REN. Rogue trooper in Sector One..._

"Oh, shit." Finn mumbled under his breath. He grabbed Poe's arm and pulled him up, racing down the halls at breakneck speeds. Poe was having trouble keeping pace.

"Wait, Finn, what's Ren?"

Poe got his answer when he and Finn burst through a door, blinking in the false daylight. Someone was waiting for them on the deserted observation balcony. Similar to Finn as far as design went, but taller by a head, with black armour and crackling plasma blades glowing red in his hands. He stared at them through a mask in eerie silence, a haunting spectre of flesh and blood.

"That's Ren." Finn said after a moment.

"Oh." Poe said quietly.

He had sort of inferred that, but it was nice getting confirmation.

  

\-----------

 

_Rogue trooper in Sector One. Rogue trooper in Sector One. All civilians return to quarters. Deploying REN. Rogue trooper in Sector One..._

"What the hell..." A couple minutes ago the rogue robots announcement had been overpowered by the alarms about that trooper. Rey was pretty sure she knew who that was.

"Well, at least that means Poe found him." she mumbled around the screwdriver she was holding between her teeth. One entire positive. That was more than Rey got, some days.

She turned back to the gigantic reactor she was puzzling over, growling to herself as she pried open another compartment to find herself faced with even more futuristic machinery. Way above her pay grade, but what could you do. At some point in the seven hundred years out here, some genius had put a compressor on the hyperdrive. If they wanted to get back to Earth she would have to figure out how to override it. She had managed to sneak into the engine room undetected, relying on updates from Eve to know what was going on upstairs. But she hadn't gotten an comm in awhile, and she was starting to get antsy.

"C'mon, you stupid fucking-" Rey yanked out a wire and suddenly the engine shuddered unhappily underneath her. She was thrown back with a sharp bang and a burst of sparks, the taste of metal in her mouth. When she managed to raise her head the hyperdrive lights were all on, bright and completely functional. That was a weight off of her shoulders.

"It's working, BB-8." she called, cupping her hands over her mouth. The droid beeped in relief and lowered a cable to her from somewhere far above. They had stayed up on deck by the maintenance door she had managed to unlock, making sure not to alert anyone's suspicions. Thankfully, too much was going on for anyone to notice the loitering little droid on deck five.

"Let's try and get Eve on the line, see how they're getting by." she suggested as they hoisted her out. "I wonder where she and Wall-E got to-"

Suddenly BB-8 squealed in distress and the tension on Rey's rope slackened. She cussed, leapt, managed to grab hold of the tubes on the wall before she fell fifty feet and became a grease stain on the ground. 

"BB-8? You okay?" She clambered up the pipes and fuse boxes, swinging up onto the deck and immediately ducking the sparking red blade that whizzed above her head. "The fuck-"

BB-8 shrieked from the corner and Rey sprinted towards them, ducking a blast from Finn that threw back the bot that was chasing her. He was standing in an alcove with BB-8 and Poe, who was kneeling with his blaster aimed. When had they gotten here? 

"Hi, guys. Care to explain that?" she asked, scrambling over to them. The bot staggered to its feet again, clicking and whirring as it recalibrated. It was flanked by other troopers, all advancing in precise formation. "Please tell me we don't have to fight it."

"Sorry to disappoint." Finn mumbled. Rey pulled out her blaster and sighed. This would be a long day.

 

\---------------

 

It was quite a bit like a advanced battle simulation, Finn thought. Ren was the next generation trooper, built from scratch rather than pieced together from defective babies and cybernetic implants. The higher level sims had pit Finn against similar opponents, only he was pretty sure that he hadn't been meant to be using that training against his own. 

Overall it wasn't going terribly, even with the odds stacked firmly against them. Rey had somehow managed to hack into Phasma's system while she was down in the reactor room, so every once in awhile the troopers would halt, jerking like there was something off with their programming. The occasional one just short circuited entirely. BB-8 was whizzing around their ankles, shocking and zapping and causing a general ruckus. The toughest nut to crack was definitely Ren. Poe had blasted a couple holes in his chest and he was still going strong, drawing out the battle to a standstill. It hadn't helped when suddenly the passengers started pouring into the lido deck. Finn tried to steer the battle away from them, but there was still the occasional straggler who nearly got blasted.

So when it happened, Finn was sure it was his fault. He had hesitated, seeing one such straggler on the edge of a balcony when the ship suddenly tilted. He cursed and stumbled, then Poe shoved him out of the way just as Ren' blade dropped. It would have sliced Finn straight down the back, but Poe caught it instead.

Finn got nothing but a glimpse of Poe lying on the ground, unmoving. And that glimpse was all it took. 

A yell ripped itself out of Finn's throat and he threw himself at Ren, pummelling and shooting and taking hits that he couldn't even feel anymore. He just let what was left of his programming take over, tapping into the rage and hatred that he had never wanted to use before. But now, now that he had something to fight for, he let it consume him, body and soul.

When Finn opened his eyes he was on his knees in front of a sizzling, molten black husk. Like a giant beetle carapace that lay twitching and dying in the sun. Ren's mask was laying by his foot, shattered like glass, the jagged edges glowing a sunset orange. Finn's sensors were buzzing and his systems were all scrambled, trying to process what had just happened.

"Fuck..." Finn's lips twitched as he stared at what he had done, the mangled remains and grisled bits of cybernetic flesh. So there had been someone under that mask. Finn took a shuddering breath. He had killed someone. Maybe he really was a monster. Maybe he really was a tool for the Order. Maybe...

"Hey, Finn, look at me." He raised his head and blinked at Rey, not quite understanding why she was caressing his cheeks, why she hadn't run away from him yet. "I have to help the droids. You get Poe, got it?" she said firmly. That snapped him out of it. Finn nodded and scrambled to his feet, over to the body curled up in the corner with BB-8 cooing at its side, heartbroken as a droid could be. Carefully, Finn rolled Poe over, wincing in sympathy when Poe let out a pained gasp.

"Poe, why would you..." Poe shuddered in his arms and Finn held him closer. "Hey, it's okay. It's okay..."

"We're going home now, right?" Poe wheezed. "We're going back to Earth..."

"That's right, Poe." Finn kissed him on the cheek and drew a shuddering breath, all too aware of how fragile Poe was, how human. Human enough to die, at any rate. "You can't die, Poe. You can't..." Poe gasped again and Finn shook his head, resolute. "I know what to do. I know how to fix this."

He scooped Poe up and eased him onto a hoverchair BB-8 pushed over to him. Seeing them made him think of Eve, of the part of him that was missing. He sent out a pulse and got a weak one back after a slight delay. Weak, but there. He would worry about her, but Poe was bleeding in his arms and crying and he didn't know if what he had in mind would even work or if it would kill him or hurt him or...

But he had to try. He just had to try.

The Finalizer had docked in the Axiom for the flight back to Earth, in one of the smaller hangars in the belly of the ship. Once onboard Finn got Poe out of his jumpsuit and opened up his cryotank, the whoosh of warm air making him gag. He hated the smell of these things, of drying blood and burning metal, horrors he wouldn't remember when he opened his eyes.

"If I'm going to bed I'll need a lullaby." Poe coughed as Finn settled him inside. Before Finn could say anything back the machine came to life, lid hissing shut over Poe's face, eclipsing him from view. Impossible to know what Finn would find when he opened that tank again. Impossible to know _who_ he would find.

"I'll see you soon." Finn said softly, stepping back before he did anything stupid. While he was folding Poe's clothes he noticed a handheld radio in one of the pockets, grimy and taped but still functional. He flipped it on and settled down with it on the ground by the tank, the crackling lyrics echoing in the emptiness left after Poe's eyes fluttered shut. 

_In a restless world like this is_  
_Love is ended before it's begun_

_And too many moonlight kisses_  
_Seem to cool in the warmth of the sun..._

Suns passed them by, along with moons and planets and all the wonders of the galaxy. But Finn's eyes were fixed on the the little universe hiding inside that tank. It looked like a coffin, Finn realised. Like he had just put Poe in his grave himself.

"Don't die, Poe." Finn said softly, watching the constellations dance across the sleek glass. "Please don't die."

 

\------------

 

"Finn? Wake up." Rey's voice broke through Finn's half-asleep haze, dragging him out of a nightmare he couldn't quite remember. He blinked his eyes open and stretched, squinting in the sunlight flooding the ship. All of the cryotanks were open and empty, aside from the one he had been using as a pillow. Looks like Rey had found it in her heart to break the other trooper's conditioning, too. "We're here."

"Oh. Where's..."

"I don't know where Eve went. I think something happened to Wall-E." Rey said softly. Pain was written on her face, clear as day. On instinct Finn pulled her into a hug, squeezing her tight and letting her cling back, fingers digging into the jacket that Poe had given him not that long ago. "BB-8's fine, I think. They're with the other droids. I think they made more friends, actually..."

"That's good, at least." 

"Yeah. How's Poe?"

"I don't know." Finn admitted, looking at the tank over the top of Rey's head. It had gone into the storage cycle, keeping Poe under until Finn authorized his release. At the very least the row of lights on the side of the tank were all green. Only Finn wasn't sure whether or not he had the courage to flip the switch. "D'you think I should bring him back to the hangar? I don't want him to wake up here." he explained. 

"Fair enough." Rey agreed. "I wouldn't want to wake up here, either..."

They loaded the tank onto a transport speeder and took off across the desert, Rey driving with uncharacteristic care. Finn caught a glimpse of the celebrating passengers, but he didn't have it in him to join in with the festivities.

Rey unloaded them at the hangar, helping Finn push the tank inside before taking off again to find the droids and clear her head. For awhile Finn just stood staring at the sleek metal and glass, hesitating without knowing why.

"You told me a fairytale like this." he recalled. "There was a sleeping princess in a forest, and true love was the only way to wake her up. So one day her prince found her and kissed her and..."

And everyone had lived happily ever after. Another moment, then Finn pressed the button and stepped back to avoid the hissing steam. Well, he would have had to face this eventually.

"Poe?" Something stirred in the fog and Finn stepped forward to see that Poe had sat up, blinking and rubbing his face, trying to get his bearings. Just that was almost enough to make Finn sob. Instead he grabbed a quilt and helped Poe out of the tank, taking the time to look him over. There wasn't even a scar. He was perfectly fine, whole and hearty and alive, somehow. Finn could barely believe it. 

"You gave me a fucking scare, y'know that?" He draped the blanket over Poe and hugged him tight, before pulling back to inspect his face, check for damage. Poe obliged, but something was wrong. He was staring at Finn but there was no light in his eyes, no warmth of recognition. The spark that Finn had grown to love was gone. 

"What's wrong, Poe? Look, we're home. We did it. We're home." Still nothing. Not even a smile. "We're home..."

This was bad. This was very, very bad, Something. He had to do something. Finn stepped back, trying to think. The room was full of trinkets. Tiny little knickknacks that Poe collected and loved and could talk about for ages. He must remember all those, right?

"I can fix this. Hey Poe, look." Finn pressed a glass globe into Poe's hands and smiled, but the shakiness in his lips betrayed him. "You remember this, right? From that weird country that had a desert and a castle and giant mice and..." After considering it for a moment Poe lay the globe gently on the table. His movements were rigid, robotic; moving at precise, ninety degree angles.

"Look, Poe. It's me. It's Finn." Poe stood stock straight, eyes fixed on the wall. Standing at attention when a senior approached was the first thing programmed into a trooper's head. So Poe stood with heels together, fists clenched at his side, staring at Finn and waiting for orders. 

"No, no, Poe, you don't have to..." Finn grabbed him, shook him, almost yelled at him to snap out of it. "You're not a trooper. You're my friend. You named me. You gave me your jacket. You saved my life. You loved me." He cupped Poe's cheeks in his burnt, dusty hands, searching his expression for a hint of the man he knew. But all he saw were the eyes of a trooper, a droid with a human face and rusted heart. "You love me..."

Poe didn't respond. He didn't move to hold Finn closer, and he didn't even try pushing him back. The cryo had done its job, leaving Finn with nothing but a husk, hollow in his arms. It almost would have been better if Poe had just died in his arms back on the Axiom. At least then he would have died knowing that they loved each other. Better dying in love than being nothing but a shadow.

Finn sighed and rested their foreheads together, hand cupping the back of Poe's neck and nose brushing his. Already Finn missed Poe's laughter, the puff of his breath. It was even worse knowing that he'd done this to him. Somehow Finn had made a machine out of a person. Somehow he had done to Poe what the Order did to him, and he wasn't sure if he could fix it.

"I'm sorry, Poe." he said softly. After hesitating for a moment he kissed Poe on the cheek and buried his face in the curve of his neck, tremors racking through his chest when Poe didn't hug him back. "I'm sorry for everything..."

He managed to hold himself up for a moment, then Finn's knees gave out and he crumpled on the ground. He felt like he was short-circuiting, like his head was about to explode. His teeth were chattering and his fingers were twitching and there was something blurring his visual sensors. A sob got caught in his throat and he choked around the unfamiliar feeling, panic building in the pit of his stomach when he realised he couldn't stop it no matter how hard he tried.

"I can't-" Finn squeezed his eyes shut and sobbed, the noise harsh and grating in his ears. He felt like he was about to burst, then someone squeezed him tight, arms warm and gentle around his shoulders. 

"Hey, sweetheart, what's the matter?" Finn couldn't manage much more than another choked gasp from someplace deep in his chest. "It's okay. It's okay, Finn. You're fine."

"Poe..." Finn blinked and looked up, quickly enough that he nearly clipped Poe's chin. Poe, who was smiling at him and holding him and breathing and looking at him like he recognised him, like he loved him. "You're okay."

"'Course I am, buddy. Did I black out or something?" Poe looked down at himself and blinked. "Why am I naked?"

"Poe, I thought you..." Another sob got caught in Finn's throat and he grimaced. This was getting to be a nuisance.

"It's okay, baby. It's okay." Poe reached out and stroked Finn's cheek, smiling a little bit. "Don't cry, sweetheart. C'mon."

"I..." Finn blinked and touched his face, surprised to find it wet. "I didn't know I could do that." he rubbed his eyes and Poe laughed as he blinked the tears out. "How do I shut it off?"

"I think it'll go away after awhile." Poe shrugged, giving Finn's hand a squeeze. The tears came in earnest, then, collecting under Finn's chin and dripping onto their entwined fingers. It was like all the tears he had never being allowed to shed had suddenly been turned loose. 

"Hope so." Finn hiccuped, letting Poe pull him into an even tighter hug. It was incredible. He was here, all of him. There was his smile and his eyes and the smell of fuel and metal clinging to his skin. All present and accounted for, real and surrounding Finn with the warmth of the sun. "You're sure you're okay?" he couldn't help but ask, not believing it himself. As an answer Poe pulled Finn close and kissed him, and yes, even his lips were perfectly intact.

"Does that answer your question?" Poe laughed against his mouth.

"You're okay." Finn agreed on their parting breath. Their foreheads knocked together and Finn smiled, wrapping his arms around Poe's waist. "You're okay."

"Yeah, but where's Rey?" As Poe asked they heard the speeder outside, then the familiar sound of rolling and running footsteps. Well, that answered his question. "Hey, kid." Poe laughed when Rey ran inside, dusty and in disarray but far happier than when Finn had last seen her. When she saw Poe she snorted, covering her mouth as though holding back a laugh. "What?" 

"Poe, put some clothes on. I leave you two alone for a minute..." She had more to say, then an excited squeal rose over her voice. BB-8 whizzed past her and bumped up against Poe, knocking back Finn in the process. That was a droid who knew what they wanted. 

"BB-8, buddy! You're okay? What happened?" Poe laughed and gave them a squeeze, listening cheerfully to the garbled binary. Finn rolled his eyes and got to his feet, laughing when Rey dropped her forehead against his chest with a tired sigh.

"Where's Eve and Wall-E?"

"They were having a moment." Rey said drily, a smile tugging at her lips. "Were you two doing the same, or..."

"No. Incidental nudity." he insisted, drawing Rey to his chest and looking around the room. Poe was still catching up with BB-8, Rey was warm against his chest, and when he sent out a pulse to Eve he got a cheerful buzz in response. Finn squeezed Rey tighter and sighed. Not to say he had much experience with homes, but he felt like he had just found his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this was a thing. thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> i had feelings and a laptop and this happened idk man


End file.
